Miracles Do Exist: Example 2

Last month I shared with you a miracle that I witnessed involving my dad. I thought it was time to share another personal miracle with all of you in need of some encouragement.

I don't often talk a lot about my son Seth's health issues, quite frankly because I hardly ever notice there is a problem. Seth was born with a form of MD called Central Core Disease. Many children born with CCD can have very mild symptoms which often go unnoticed until adulthood when they may encounter back pain or other joint pains. Seth, however, was born with some very immediate symptoms. He was born with dislocated hips, and he also had severe reflux(although not a related symptom, we happen to believe it is associated because Skip and Skip's grandfather also had this problem). Because Seth required 2 surgeries within the first two months of his life to correct the reflux, we kind of put on hold the dislocated hips. The doctor's felt it was secondary to the fact that we had to get food to stay down because he was only getting nutrition through a feeding tube, he had a central line for all his medications, and he had a very scary reaction to the anesthesia after his second surgery. For those of you wondering about the surgeries, he had what they thought was pyloric stenosis first. They did surgery for that, but after his reflux continued very violently, they had to do what is called a nissen fundoplication to solve the problem. He was in the hospital exactly 4 weeks, and then we took him home with a feeding tube and lot of prayers. He was a whopping 8 lbs. 11 oz. at birth which was a total blessing for all that he had to endure over that month. That was a miracle in itself since my girls were both only 7 lb. 11 oz. each. However, over the next 6 months, Seth was labeled failure to thrive. We had him on all sorts of formulas, I was pumping to also give him breast milk, but he would never take more than two to three ounces at a feeding.

At seven and a half months, Seth had a horrible weekend. He was crying non-stop, and his tummy was as hard as a rock. He was literally skin and bones, despite a nutritionist working with us and a visit to the pediatrician's office weekly. We just couldn't get Seth to gain weight. I was exhausted, and that weekend I had to take him to the emergency room. Believe it or not, they said it must be a formula alergy and sent me home to try a new one. On Monday morning, Skip and I knew something must be done because Seth wouldn't take anything to drink, and he had stopped having bm's. When our peditrician took a look at Seth, he immediately rushed him to a nearby hospital and had x-rays taken which showed an obstruction. He said we could probably get to our surgeon before an ambulance could get him there. Our surgeon lived in San Antonio (forgot to mention that all his surgeries were there, while we lived in Victoria at the time(a 2 hour drive away). Our surgeon met us at the door, and did immediate surgery and found several blockages caused by adhesions. He said if he would have gotten to the hospitable even one hour later he could have died due to the adhensions which were on the verge of releasing toxins in his body. Seth stayed another week in ICU and then we took him home. I am still not to the miracle, but we saw God working in our lives like never before. When we brought Seth home, he still wasn't gaining weight. He was 10lbs. 6oz. at 7and 1/2 months old. Can you even imagine? We had some dear, dear friends (remember the artist friend and his wife that we stayed at their house this summer) who suggested we consult a nutritionist that they had used in the past to gain healthy lifestyles. We were up for anything at this point. The problem was the nutritionist that they used was in Tulsa Oaklahoma. No problem, our friends set up a phone consultation with this amazing man Dr. Joel Robbins, and they even paid for it for us. Within 10 minutes, he heard our story, shuddered at all our baby had gone through and then made his suggestions. We went full force with his recommedations which involved some very strange ideas to us at the time. He said first of all, get off all formula and find a goat. Skip, my very skeptical husband said, "Okay?" He also suggested that we juice for him twice a day (carrot, apple and celery combo), and only give him live foods. It isn't legal in Texas to buy goat's milk(at least it wasn't at the time), but we ended up getting some from a real goat. I'm not saying anymore, but we were sent an angel within two days of the phone call. The first bottle of live goat's milk we gave Seth, he guzzled 8 oz., which was 5 more ounces than he had ever drank before in his life. We were IN SHOCK! Within a few days Seth gained a whole pound. We were amazed! It was a miracle, but this still isn't the miracle I am writing about today. Stay tuned for part two... I have to go write a script for my kids who are putting on a play in the living room.